Spaghetti Squash

 Feels like I haven't baked/cooked for a long time!  I finally got around to making spaghetti squash!  I read about these a while ago but never got around to actually making it until now.  It was hard trying to buy these since the Asian supermarkets don't have them, the corner supermarkets doesn't have them, even BJs doesn't have them.  I tried Trader Joe's but they were all sold out, guess these squashes are pretty popular.  Finally I was able to find them at Whole Foods and they were on sale for $1.49/lb.  Even though I picked the tiniest squash, it still came out to $4 for the squash. 

I used 2 recipes:  one from the Pioneer Woman and one from Simply Recipes.  The hardest part was cutting the squash in half!  I used the Chinese cleavers which are pretty big and it still took me almost 15 minutes to cut it half.  After that, it was pretty easy, just putting it in the oven and cooking it until it got soft.  It definitely tasted better with tomato sauce than on it's own. 

On Repeat

                                                 Crooked -- Gdragon

"Nothing ever lasts forever
In the end, you changed There is no reason, no sincerity. 

Take away such a thing as love
Tonight, I’ll be crooked

Leave me alone I was alone anyway
I have no one, everything is meaningless. Take away the
sugar-coated comfort
Tonight, I’ll be crooked"

Credits: kkromanized

Shinee - Symptoms
Your cold eyes digs into my heart, cutting deeply through the center
If I don’t cure this wound, I might die, I might go crazy, I don’t know what will happen
The sickness that is you, the worse it gets, 

the more exhausted I get but the only medicine is you
If I can’t have you, I might die, I might go crazy, I don’t know what will happen
The only medicine is you I can’t live if I lose you

                                                 Credits: kpoplyrics

Jungsik

Had dinner at Jungsik the other night and it was really good!  Before going, I was told it was a "Korean French fusion" restaurant, so I was skeptical as to how good it would be.  We went on a weekday night and it was surprisingly packed.  I looked up the restaurant afterwards and found out it was awarded 2 stars by Michelin recently!  There were no empty tables and we were even booted out from the table (more on that in a sec).

We decided to share the dishes so we ordered the Octopus, Oyster, Bossam, Sea Urchin, Thai Lobster, Gangnam Chicken, Jungsik Steak, and Fish.  The food was sooooooo good, and filling even though the portions were pretty tiny.  The wine list was huge and we had a Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs, had no idea what it was, turns out it is a sparkling wine.  So after we ordered dessert (Green Team Cremeux, Plum, and Sweet Potato Tart), the waiter comes by and says if we would mind moving to the bar.  We asked him why we had to move and he didn't really give us an answer.  We told him that we had been there for only 2 hours so why did we have to move and he offered to comp the desserts.  We saw people standing by the bar waiting so we assumed they had overbooked, so we were nice enough to move.  Not a great way to end the meal but it was good overall.  Sad I didn't take any pictures of the food though.....

A promise is a promise, right?

So I need 3 recommendations for grad school, and I have two down, one to go.  This is all partly my fault because I procrastinated but anyways --- I had mentioned to a person that I was going to apply to grad school and asked her if she can write a recommendation for me.  At that time, she said yes.  I told her that I would tell her when  I needed the recommendation since at that time, I hadn't start the applications yet.  Two weeks before the deadline, I asked her again if she could write it.  She said yes and to email her all the info.  She didn't respond to my email, so I assumed she was writing it.  Fast forward 1 week, I call her to see how she was doing with the recommendation.  She tells me she has been very busy and didn't have time to look at the email.  She says she will be busy and won't be able to write it until a couple weeks late.

WTF?!?!?!?!?!

You couldn't tell me earlier??? You waited until I called you to tell me this??? Now, if I can't get anyone to write the recommendation, then I can't even apply to grad school.  

OMGGGGG I am so freaking pissed off.  I went home and binged on potato chips and ice cream.  Still feeling pissed off.

Sanya

My parents have been watching a TVB series called "Triumph in the Skies 2".  It is about an airline company and all the relationships between the workers. 

Since the show revolves around an airline, there are multiple locations for the scenes including Paris, London, and Taiwan.  In a recent episode, the cast travels to Sanya, a city in Hainan.  Let me just say, the hotel is soooooo beautiful.  When I saw the hotel, I had to google it.  It is definitely on my list of to go places.  Here are some pictures from their hotel website Conrad Hotel, prepare to drool:

Mannings Commercial

http://youtu.be/ShwxAwIFaQE

Love this commercial, brings a smile to my face every time. 

Stuck

Blog post below from June but I guess I didn't put it up? ------

You know when you get stuck sometimes?  Doesn't matter if it's a thought, person, issue, anything.  I have been getting stuck lately.  Getting stuck and not moving.  Stuck with my GRE studying, grad school apps, and 짝사랑.

Sometimes when you are stuck, you just need to take that step and keep on moving.

As for my 짝사랑, the only way I can get unstuck is to not think about it and not see the person. 


-----Good thing is I'm done with the GRE but need to put my butt into high gear for the applications....deadline in less than 1 month!!!

Kdramas

My foolproof way to procrastinate?  Watch kdramas!  Having them all subbed and ready for a marathon is not helpful to studying for the GREs. 

  

Who wouldn't want to be a girl living next door to flower boys?

Updates

Accomplished a second item on my list: signed up for a dating site!  Not much success though, most messages are just " Hey girl"....but there are some that contain even more words- " Ayy girl, you look cute, let's chat."  Once in a while, I get one that actually sounds like a normal conversation. 

Sigh....is it that hard to find love?  Seeing friends on facebook getting married and having kids(AHHH) just reminds me that time is ticking!

For mother's day, I tried to cook steak for the first time.  I bought some rib eyes and followed a recipe online.  Unfortunately, when we sliced them open, it was super red inside.  I had to take all the steaks and put them in the microwave =(

My parents like to watch the Hong Kong channels and I always see these ads for McDonald's.  They have such a cool menu:  Bubble tea & bubble tea ice cream, black & white sandwiches, and soy milk (my favorite!)

Also, after listening to this for a hundred times, I actually like it.

Young Love

When I was little, my mom took me to piano lessons on the weekends.  Learning how to play instruments is a huge Asian parent thing.  For the beginner's classes, they were group classes and I made friends with a couple of the students. 

When Titanic came out, it was THE movie.  Everyone was talking about it, everyone had seen it.  (Side note:  it was pretty awkward watching it with my parents when the drawing scene came on).  One of my piano classmates, Alex, gave me the cutest gift ever.  He gave me a book about the Titanic.  I'm not sure if he realized that the story didn't have a happy ending, but both of our parents cooed and aaahhed about how sweet it was.  I think I was too young to understand why he gave me the book, and besides, he was just someone I saw each Saturday.  But to this day, I still have the book he gave me.

I haven't seen Alex since those piano classes back in the day.  When my mom was pressuring me to get a boyfriend, she told me to look him up (he was a pretty cute kid).  I tried to find him on Facebook but to no avail.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I remembered his last name correctly. 

Dream Car

So I had a conversation with friends regarding cars and the topic of dream cars came up.  Just so it happens, my dream car drove by and I pointed it out.  The reaction that I got was utter disgust.  Exclamations of the ugliness of the car and that even a pickup truck would be preferred.  The car that I pointed to was the Range Rover Evoque. 

http://www.landrover.com/us/en/lr/range-rover-evoque/photos-and-videos/


I think my first recollection of Range Rovers was on "The O.C.", when Ryan drove the Cohen's Range Rover.  Back then, I thought that the car was huge, ugly, and overpriced.

Now, Range Rover has this new car that looks so sexy and pretty!  And the price is much more affordable than the regular Range Rovers.  I still can't see why my friends thought the car was ugly  +_+

Success!

Yes!!  I passed my driver's license test!  It was pretty nerve wracking since I saw that one of the proctors was the same lady who failed me last time.  Luckily, I got the other guy who kindly passed me even though I hit the curb when I was parking. 

Now, to tackle the other items on my list.....

Also contemplating getting this nail polish from Illamasqua but it's pretty expensive...$16

Proactive

Nope, this post is not about acne.

This is about being proactive, getting my ass out of the chair, getting what I want instead of sitting back and waiting for it to eventually come to me.  I started to think about being proactive after a recent spate of events (including grandparent's death, health scare in the family, unrequited love, realizing I'm getting old, etc. etc.)

So, below is a list of things that I MUST accomplish ASAP:

~sign up for a dating site (pondering okcupid)
~get my driver's license no matter how many times I need to take the test
~take the GRE
~start my applications to grad school
~try to meet new people (at a club/bar?!?)

Also, I feel like I should treasure my parents more and try not to get pissed out every time they nagged me

After all, YOLO, right?

To The Beautiful You

I had a couple days off for the Chinese New Year.  Instead of studying for the GREs or researching grad schools, guess what I did?

Yup, watch a kdrama.  This is actually a drama from last year, but since I watched both the Japanese and Taiwanese versions, I had to watch the korean version.  The story is based on a Japanese manga series "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e"

And this song from the OST is sooo goooood!

Long time no see!

Whew, it's 2013!  No posts since August?!?  Guess I procrastinate too much +_+

Finally got the pictures from whitewater rafting back in August!  No joke, a priest was on my raft. 

And I got to see my future hubby rap his heart out in concert!

Hmm, what's new in my life?  Switched jobs, still haven't taken the GRE, still haven't even started studying for it, realized I missed the deadline for entry this year for school, probably don't have the all the prereqs needed.

Sigh, what am I going to do with my life?